Last year, the average college tuition at a public university was about $21,000 and at a private one it was doubled at $42,000. So, how do students pay for their education?

"I have loans taken out with my parents," said Annie Campbell, a freshman at WVWC.

"Well, I took out loans and my parents are also contributing," said Keana Bertocci, a student at WVWC.

"I don't have a lot of loans yet, but when I do, I'll repay from that," said Wesleyan freshman, Alex Branch.

That leaves them with a large amount of debt when they leave school.

However, if they look hard enough, they can find some help.

"One of the things we hear every single year from students that are juniors and seniors in college, is they'll say, 'I wish I filled out this thing for my local Kiwanis Club or I wish I filled out an application for local sports teams', or all the different things that go on. The student has the greatest capability of getting money as an undergraduate before they come to school," said John Waltz, director of admissions at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Places like www.fastweb.com allow high school students to explore thousands of scholarship options available to them. That way, they can find what some call, free money, or in other words, something they don't have to pay back once they're done with school.

"When they go and look at these things, there are scholarships there for making a prom dress out of tin foil or duct tape or being left handed or being prematurely gray. There are things that sound like they'd be the silliest things, but there are scholarships and foundations for all of these different kinds of things," said Waltz.

But, should students have to work this hard to find ways to pay for college?

Some students said they think the government should be doing more to make college affordable.

"I think they definitely need to step in and help a little bit more because kids are going into debt because they're trying to pay for college to get a good job," said Bertocci.

"If they need more people in the workforce with an education looking at that factor, I think the government needs to be cautious about that, and just know the fluctuation with how you spend for college," said Branch.

For now, students will have to search for ways to pay for their higher education or else dig deep into their pockets for years after they graduate.

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